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Jul. 3rd, 2008 06:00 pm
With Hawks having a Monday night home game with Weston-super-Mare on 11 August, I went to see Pat this morning to book the evening as holiday. Tiny problem - that shift was already fully booked with people wanting leave. So I put Plan B into action.
I had intended requesting a change of shift pattern later in the year anyway, switching to Monday am, Tuesday pm and Thursday and Friday am's, primarily to take me out of the Monday night shift in case of Hawk home matches. While the Weston one is our only scheduled midweek home game, there's always the chance of cup replays, or another long cup run resulting in re-arranged league games. So I emailed Pat requested a change to that schedule from 1 August (you can only change shift pattern on the 1st of a month), saying it would improve my work-life balance. Passing her desk a little later, Pat said it shouldn't be a problem as they're looking for more people on the Monday am and Tuesday pm shifts, and she'd emailed Mary to run it by her. Ironically, she added that one of the people who'd booked the 11th as holiday had left her job now so I'd have been able to take the evening off after all.
Meanwhile, when Jane heard from Paula that I had an appointment to give blood after the shift, she said "You should have gone during the shift. I went down just now, but they wouldn't let me donate" (because she'd been on medication within the past fortnight). I said I didn't think we were allowed to come off the phones to give blood, and she said "Yes, we are." Paula added that telephone unit staff used to have to donate outside their shift times, but that was changed when someone pointed out that all the other staff got to leave their duties to give blood.
Just after noon, as I passed Mary's desk on my way down to lunch, I asked her if she'd seen my shift change request and she said yes, and that it was very helpful. So by the time of my last health and safety break, when I bumped into Pat in the lounge she invited me to come back to her desk with her and sign my new contract.
With that done, the next tasks were to book Tuesday 5 August as leave (Hawks friendly with Portsmouth) and mop up the mess my changed had caused to already-agreed shift swaps. With all the time I spent off the phones sorting all that business, it's just as well I gave blood outside shift time.
My donation went fine, if the little Bloodmobile was a bit crammed with all the people coming to donate (that's a good sign, though). After I'd done a couple of open and close fists at Jeff (my carer)'s request, he gave me a plastic tube to grasp hold of for opening and closing - the first time I've been given any object for that purpose, but it seemed to work. When I'd finished, Jeff held his square of lint over the spot where the needle had gone in for a while, while a nurse raced to get a plaster. Over to the little table for a cup of coffee, a packet of crisps and a little chocolate cake over my Black Widowers book. Two guys, one rapidly after the other, arrived just after I'd sat down and both sat on the opposite side to fill their questionnaires in - cue to move my coffee and cake to the one unoccupied corner of the table, just to my side.
When I said goodbye to the staff there was still a while left before the bus went, so I popped back to the coffee lounge for a surf, till I remembered that Hawks Ladies have a home friendly with Reading Royals on Tuesday 26 August. Thoughts of getting the 3.31 bus disappeared - I had another holiday to book. I was starting to wish I'd held fire on changing shift patterns for one more month and taken that last spot on the 11th. Another thing I remembered was that Clare was asking for someone to do a swap, wanting out of Wednesday 6 August and offering to do the Tuesday. I was now in a position to help her, and save myself a holiday into the bargain.
So I trooped back up to the telephone unit - where Jen, the pm supervisor, thought I'd come to work the pm shift! Thankfully Pat had knocked off for the day - I don't think she could have coped with my coming back for yet another holiday cancellation and booking - and Barry was on duty. After phoning Clare to confirm the shift with her (second time lucky - the first time I got her little daughter who said "Mummy's outside having lunch") I asked Barry to red-pen out my 5 August holiday and wrote my 26 August request in my pink book, and he said he'd action it. Next thing was to locate the shift swap forms, as there were none on display; I alerted Sue #4, and Paul, hearing our conversation, ran to the stationery cupboard for a new batch and gave me one. Pulled Clare's swap request card off the board, wrote the form out and dumped it in the Support Team's in tray. Down to the canteen for a bottle of strawberry water to take my hay fever pill with, and out to the bus stop in plenty of time for the 4.18 bus. Phew.
I had intended requesting a change of shift pattern later in the year anyway, switching to Monday am, Tuesday pm and Thursday and Friday am's, primarily to take me out of the Monday night shift in case of Hawk home matches. While the Weston one is our only scheduled midweek home game, there's always the chance of cup replays, or another long cup run resulting in re-arranged league games. So I emailed Pat requested a change to that schedule from 1 August (you can only change shift pattern on the 1st of a month), saying it would improve my work-life balance. Passing her desk a little later, Pat said it shouldn't be a problem as they're looking for more people on the Monday am and Tuesday pm shifts, and she'd emailed Mary to run it by her. Ironically, she added that one of the people who'd booked the 11th as holiday had left her job now so I'd have been able to take the evening off after all.
Meanwhile, when Jane heard from Paula that I had an appointment to give blood after the shift, she said "You should have gone during the shift. I went down just now, but they wouldn't let me donate" (because she'd been on medication within the past fortnight). I said I didn't think we were allowed to come off the phones to give blood, and she said "Yes, we are." Paula added that telephone unit staff used to have to donate outside their shift times, but that was changed when someone pointed out that all the other staff got to leave their duties to give blood.
Just after noon, as I passed Mary's desk on my way down to lunch, I asked her if she'd seen my shift change request and she said yes, and that it was very helpful. So by the time of my last health and safety break, when I bumped into Pat in the lounge she invited me to come back to her desk with her and sign my new contract.
With that done, the next tasks were to book Tuesday 5 August as leave (Hawks friendly with Portsmouth) and mop up the mess my changed had caused to already-agreed shift swaps. With all the time I spent off the phones sorting all that business, it's just as well I gave blood outside shift time.
My donation went fine, if the little Bloodmobile was a bit crammed with all the people coming to donate (that's a good sign, though). After I'd done a couple of open and close fists at Jeff (my carer)'s request, he gave me a plastic tube to grasp hold of for opening and closing - the first time I've been given any object for that purpose, but it seemed to work. When I'd finished, Jeff held his square of lint over the spot where the needle had gone in for a while, while a nurse raced to get a plaster. Over to the little table for a cup of coffee, a packet of crisps and a little chocolate cake over my Black Widowers book. Two guys, one rapidly after the other, arrived just after I'd sat down and both sat on the opposite side to fill their questionnaires in - cue to move my coffee and cake to the one unoccupied corner of the table, just to my side.
When I said goodbye to the staff there was still a while left before the bus went, so I popped back to the coffee lounge for a surf, till I remembered that Hawks Ladies have a home friendly with Reading Royals on Tuesday 26 August. Thoughts of getting the 3.31 bus disappeared - I had another holiday to book. I was starting to wish I'd held fire on changing shift patterns for one more month and taken that last spot on the 11th. Another thing I remembered was that Clare was asking for someone to do a swap, wanting out of Wednesday 6 August and offering to do the Tuesday. I was now in a position to help her, and save myself a holiday into the bargain.
So I trooped back up to the telephone unit - where Jen, the pm supervisor, thought I'd come to work the pm shift! Thankfully Pat had knocked off for the day - I don't think she could have coped with my coming back for yet another holiday cancellation and booking - and Barry was on duty. After phoning Clare to confirm the shift with her (second time lucky - the first time I got her little daughter who said "Mummy's outside having lunch") I asked Barry to red-pen out my 5 August holiday and wrote my 26 August request in my pink book, and he said he'd action it. Next thing was to locate the shift swap forms, as there were none on display; I alerted Sue #4, and Paul, hearing our conversation, ran to the stationery cupboard for a new batch and gave me one. Pulled Clare's swap request card off the board, wrote the form out and dumped it in the Support Team's in tray. Down to the canteen for a bottle of strawberry water to take my hay fever pill with, and out to the bus stop in plenty of time for the 4.18 bus. Phew.
